Get Wonkbook delivered to your inbox or mobile device every morning. It's everything you need to know about domestic and economic policy (and some stuff you don't).Subscribe now.

Obama: 'We're Starting To See Progress'

President Obama said "we're starting to see progress" toward an economic recovery, following his skull session with his top economic advisers and agency heads at the White House this morning.

"If we stick with it, if we don't flinch in the face of difficulties, I feel absolutely convinced we are going to get this economy back on" track, Obama said, speaking with reporters after the meeting broke up. "What we're starting to see is glimmers of hope."

He pointed out that the Small Business Administration reported a 20 percent increase in its largest loan program last month, a sign that credit is beginning to flow again.

"I feel very good about unlocking lending," the president said.

He said consumers are starting to see the result of tax cuts in their paychecks.

"We've still got a lot of work to do over the next several weeks," Obama cautioned, and said "you will see additional acts by this administration.

Obama did not provide details of forthcoming plans, but they may include an increasingly active role in the fate of GM, if the company chooses a government-backed bankruptcy.

The economy is giving mixed signals. Wall Street pulled off a March rally that saw all major indices climb more than 10 percent. In this holiday-shortened week, the Dow moved up more than 1 percent and the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq each climbed more than 2 percent.

However, a survey of chief executives came out this week that showed deteriorating confidence looking forward to the rest of the year, unemployment is predicted to keep rising above its current level of 8.5 percent and investors only need 10 more consecutive months of 13 percent gains (as they experienced in March) to get...right back where they were in October 2007, at the market's height.

Of course he didn't take questions. When he doesn't have a clue, about much of anything, except trashing our country or sucking up to muslims, he doesn't have answers either.
Probably planning another campaign trip.
What a bumbling idiot.

It is well known that IBM just laid off 5,000 US workers and in the same announcement declared that 3,000 of those jobs would be moved to India. This just proves that big business knows that Obama has given up on his promise to stop giving 0% tax rates to companies that relocated their facilities and jobs overseas.

The congress will keep and is talking about making the Bush Tax cuts of 2001/2004 permanent. That legislation punishes US companies hiring US workers by charging them 38% tax rates, while simulataneously awarding 0% tax rates to US companies that offshore US jobs and businesses.

There is no greater treason being perpetrated on the American people than this upside down legislation passed by congress.

Why did this law get passed? Because George Bush wanted a 3 trillion dollar war. His only choice to pay for it was to ask the US taxpayer to accept a 100% increase in taxes. He knew they wouldn't accept that. So George went to India and China and made them a deal. In return for the US turning over it's factories and jobs to India and China, China and India would buy US treasury notes in amounts equal to the cost of the war.

The result is that we are now indebted to those nations (Muslim and Communist) to the tune of over 5 trillion dollars. Additionally, those US multinationals that took advantage of the tax haven offer have parked 10's of trillions of dollars in offshore banks where it sits untaxed. All this while we are losing jobs daily and the unemployment roles and welfare rolls are rising to rates we haven't seen in half a century.

Our taxes are being used to subsidize companies that are destroying our jobs and manufacturing base. So multinationals not only get a 0% corporate income tax rate, but they also get other tax abatement incentives like no city/county taxes, no property taxes, etc.

So we the tax payer end up paying for the roads, sewage, electric and other infrastructure items required by these companies facilities.

A bit of recovery for equity markets does not make any recovery necessarily for Main Street or American workers. Stocks have rebounded because of their low price/earnings ratio. Big investors are buying prime stocks. their is NO recovery yet.